Cathie Wood's ARK Innovation ETF drops more than 3% amid tech sell-off, off almost 30% from high

Cathie Wood, chief executive officer and chief investment officer of ARK Investment Management LLC, speaks during the Sooner Than You Think conference in the Brooklyn borough of New York on Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018.

Alex Flynn | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Star manager Cathie Wood's flagship fund —Ark Innovation — is taking a beating Tuesday amid the sell-off in growth stocks.

Ark Innovation dropped 3.3% on Tuesday, alongside the Nasdaq Composite's 1.9% tumble. The "disruptive innovation" fund is down more than 6.4% this week and 9.2% in 2021, while the S&P 500 has gained over 10% this year.

The fund is nearly 30% off its high in February of this year, after which the ETF spiraled on the threat of rising interest rates.

"High multiple stocks in tech are very crowded," Stephanie Link, chief investment strategist at HighTower, said on CNBC's "Halftime Report." "You have very tough comparisons going forward. But also the valuations. High valuations don't do well when you see better GDP growth, a little bit more inflation."

Some of Ark Innovation's top holdings were taking big hits. Tesla lost 1.7% and Teladoc Health dropped 3%. Square and Roku fell 5.1% and 4.7%, respectively. Zillow Group dipped 3.4%.

It is challenging to pinpoint the exact reason for the selling in technology shares this week with interest rates staying lower and the sector coming off a week of blowout earnings. Investors could be taking profits in their biggest winners since the pandemic lows and rotating into things more leveraged to the reopening.

Plus, the threat of higher capital gains taxes likely isn't helping sentiment.

Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at the Leuthold Group, told CNBC that investors could be getting increasingly disappointed that stocks are not doing well in the face of fantastic earnings news. He suggested if "good news" is already fully priced in, a market top could be near.

In the face of this weakness, investors are pulling money from Wood's fund. More than $290 million left Ark Innovation in the last week, according to FactSet. However, more than $7 billion has flooded into Wood's ETF this year.

Wood, as usual, is staying the course during the pressure on her top holdings. After a 15% drop in Twitter's stock on Friday, Wood added 843,194 shares of Twitter to the Ark Innovation ETF and 468,256 shares to the Ark Next Generation Internet ETF. Those positions would be worth about $72.4 million based on Twitter's closing price on Friday.

Wood's other ETFs also experienced intense selling pressure on Tuesday. The Ark Next Generation ETF lost 3.2%, bringing its week-to-date losses to more than 5%. The Ark Genomic Revolution ETF and the Ark Autonomous Technology and Robotics ETF lost 4% and 2%, respectively on Tuesday. The pair are down 6.6% and 3.6% this week alone. The Ark Fintech Innovation ETF dropped 3%, bringing its losses for the week to 4.3%.

The Ark Autonomous Technology and Robotics ETF and Ark Fintech Innovation are Wood's only funds in the green for the year.

Wood gained popularity after Ark Innovation's rally of nearly 150% in 2020.

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